


Many Happy Returns! (Into Your Arms)

by Gee_Writes



Series: Skinny Jeans and Khaki [5]
Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe, Established Relationship, Friendship, Greenie!Gon, Hipster!Killua, Love, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-07
Updated: 2014-07-07
Packaged: 2018-02-07 20:18:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1912422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gee_Writes/pseuds/Gee_Writes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The fact that he'd forgotten his own birthday hardly surprised Killua.  That didn't mean everyone else did.</p><p>Modern(?) AU where Killua ages another year, and Gon's going to stop his heart before he reaches the next one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Many Happy Returns! (Into Your Arms)

He'd forgotten.

The fact that he'd forgotten his own birthday hardly surprised Killua, the day not meaning anything particularly special to him.  In the past he'd be woken by the butlers for a celebratory breakfast with his parents, and the rest of the day be bombarded with praise, gifts and congratulations.  Business partners looking to get close to his father would send highly expensive items for him, as if Killua didn't own enough watches or ties or alcohol to last a life time.  Hell, he had 5 cars too many back at the manor.

At least all of those, he'd thought bitterly, were better than the high-end escorts.

But now with the lack of butlers or his parents to remind him, he spent the day like any other: doing small chores, attending one of his afternoon classes, calling the apartment to see if they needed groceries.  All things that would happen any other day, aside from one thing.

Gon was absent.

At first it had surprised him, waking up on his own with the warm body behind him missing, a little amused that Gon had managed to wake up before him for the first time since that first visit to his apartment, oh so many months ago.  He got up, fully expecting him to be in the shower, or humming some stupid tune in the kitchen as he cooked.  Instead, all he found was a quiet apartment and a hastily written note on the counter.

_'Sorry Killua, I forgot I have field work today.  I'm working out in the marsh collecting samples, so I don't think you'll be able to reach me until after 5.  Have a good day, and I'll see you when I get home!'_

and then, at the end

_'I love you.'_

“Idiot.”

After that he got on with his day.  Had a nice breakfast with Alluka, in which he gallantly tried to make blueberry pancakes, and resulted in them having cornflakes.  Watered the half-dozen potted herbs Gon was growing on the balcony.  Stopped by at the campus coffee shop before his lecture to grab a double ice mocha with whipped cream and a muffin.  Texted Palm about the due date for his accountancy logs.  It was a normal day.  Mostly.

He didn't really feel the absence Gon left behind until a little after noon.  Stepping out of the air-conditioned business building into the hot sun after class had him wondering if Gon had taken enough drinking water with him, or if he was risking dehydration and sunstroke for the sake of soil samples like the idiot he was.  Reaching for his phone, it was a minute before he realised the futile effort trying to reach ( _his boyfriend?_ ) Gon would be.  So instead he just sighed as he stuffed both his hand and phone into his pocket, scanning the sky in the hopes that there was substantial cloud cover he hadn't noticed before.  There wasn't.

He head to the library planning to meet up with some guy he had a partnered assignment with - having to come up with a marketing proposal for randomly assigned items, they'd been given squid.  Nothing too difficult and the other guy seemed really into it.  Said it was his favourite animal.  Whatever, Killua wouldn't judge.  He'd barely sat down to wait though, before his phone buzzed in his pocket.  He wasn't too surprised when he saw it was his classmate, an apologetic text about having something urgent come up.  It _was_ a Friday, and the assignment wasn't due for the best part of a month and a half, so Killua shot a quick text back, and was left to wonder what to do for the rest of the day.

With Gon around, the hours seemed to fill themselves.  Killua never had to strain himself to think of ways to occupy the time, found himself content just being by Gon's side as they got through the mundane.  They could be sitting in silence, each finishing school work, and Killua would be happier than right now.

He sometimes wondered what that said about him.

It wasn't like all the books and movies had made him believe, love being a whirlwind of passion and heady emotions.  It was instead, he thought, comforting and soft.  Like when he watched the dawn, sunlight breaking on a new day.  Or the feeling of the sheets, directly from the dryer.  Little things building up to big things, brick by brick.  Gon's arms around his waist as they lay in bed on rainy weekends, their fingers brushing as they made dinner every night, Gon's lopsided smile when Killua tried to teach him to dance.  Everything.

The space aside him felt empty, like a void. It wasn't so much the fact that Gon wasn't physically there, as the two _did_ actually have separate lives from time to time, but more so the knowledge that he wasn't _there_ in his day, wouldn't see him for several hours more, couldn't hear his voice if he tried to call now.

He was lonely.

So much more than he had felt before he knew Gon, and Killua guessed that this was just one more small thing that the other had changed in him.

It took him a while to move from the library chair he'd occupied and surprised himself when he checked the time.  Despite this, he found himself walking home before he realised it.  Finger on speed dial, he phoned ahead to tell Alluka he was on his way.

“ _Brother!_ ”

“Hey, Alluka.  My plans were cancelled so I'm on my way back now, anything we need?”

“ _Good timing, actually!  I need you to get vanilla ice cream.”_

“That's not really something we **need** , Alluka.”

“ _Yes it is!  It's very important.  Oh, and matches._ ”

“Matches?”

“ ** _Yes_** _, brother, matches!  You need to get them from the supermarket on Forwith._ ”

“Why do I need to go all the way out there?  I can get matches from the convenience store half a block from the apartment.”

“ _No, brother!  The supermarket matches are better.  The ice cream, too.  You have to go there to get them._ ”

“OK, OK, I get it.  Just ice cream and matches, right?”

“ _Yep!  See you when you get home!_ ”

And whilst he wouldn't begrudge his sister anything if he could help it, he really had to wonder what she was scheming.

Well, as much as it confused him, the supermarket wasn't that far out of his way, it would take him a little over an hour to get back to the apartment.  2 hours til Gon was supposed to be back.  And then things could finally fall back to normality. 

He ran.

Ran in the vain hope that moving faster might speed up the flow of time, might mean Gon was already home, waiting.  As if sprinting 8 blocks and back was easy.  As if getting back to the apartment in half the time was normal.  Well, he reasoned, he needed the exercise.

He skipped steps on his way up, too restless to wait for the elevator.  12 flights of stairs passing by in a moment.  Key in the lock before his brain could catch up.

The confetti slowed him down though.

He just stood in the door way, certain the expression he was making was _beyond_ stupid, as his sister and best friend gave a hearty “HAPPY BIRTHDAY”.

Snapped out of his stupor by the zealous hug he received from Alluka, all Killua could do was look incredulously between them.

“I think we surprised him well, Gon!  He had no idea!” and the two shared a laugh, pleased with the result.

“Y-you two... this is... I _did_ forget,” silently willing away the tears.

“Because Killua always forgets about himself, right?”

“Yep.  Brother's always too preoccupied with other people to think about himself.”

“But that's OK, that's why he has us.”

“Oh!  Brother, you didn’t give us much time to decorate, but come see, we have a cake and everything!”

And they did.  A large roll cake, distinct chocolate shavings spiking up from every angle, fresh cream filling dripping out the ends.  It looked delicious.

“Aunt Mito made it, and she sends her love.  I had to go over early to help finish it.”

“So no field work?”

Gon scratched the back of his head at that, sheepish grin directed at Killua.

“No, sorry.  I had a lot of things to get ready.  Like this,” and with that, he pulled out a small box, wrapped in silver paper.  “I hope you like it.”

Why his fingers started shaking, Killua couldn't have told you.  All he could say would be that things got a lot less steady when he tried to use his hands.  It took him a fraction longer than it should, but soon the paper was gone and the little box open.  He was shocked.  And confused.

“Gon, why did you get me a key?”

“Well, in case you need it.”

_Well, that was helpful._

“Is this to your apartment?  Do you even _have_ your own apartment?”

“No, and no.”

“What's it for then?”

“It's the key to Aunt Mito's.”  The look Gon gave him was hopeful.  Hopeful that he'd understand.

And boy, did he.

“Gon, I -”

“I know that aside from Alluka, your family isn't that great, Killua.  So.  So I was hoping you wouldn't mind mine?”

He could barely hear.  His brain was in overdrive, but his thoughts were padded in cotton wool.  The tears were way past threatening, slowly leaving tracks down his face.  Carefully stuttering out his breath.

He found himself in a hug, heard himself whisper - ' _I missed you today_ '.Breathing in his smell, reminding himself.  Trying to absorb as much as he could of the other boy.  Almost missed the reply of ' _me too_ '.

Today was his birthday.

He'd forgotten. 

But they hadn't.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!
> 
> This was a bit rushed, as I wanted to write something for Killua's birthday, but had nothing planned. I hope it turned out OK!
> 
> My wholehearted thanks to [wartransmission](http://archiveofourown.org/users/wartransmission) once again. Thank you for being the most encouraging friend I could ask for!
> 
> Please read her [beautiful](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1833439/chapters/3938320) work, it's amazing!
> 
> If you want to leave me a message, or just chat HxH, my tumblr is compulsive-bibliotaph.tumblr.com


End file.
